In Maggie’s class, young girls learn to sew. In mathematics, the exercises relate to the distances separating the various villages of Nunavik. In Lise’s class, the children speak a mixture of Inuktitut, French and English. During the cultural week, students and teachers go seal hunting and invite the whole village to a great feast. School in Nunavik goes well beyond academic knowledge…
Inuguiniq. In Inuktitut, the word “education” has a very broad scope that is part of a holistic perspective. It aims for the development of the human being in connection with his environment and his community.
Thus, learning to hunt and learning to recognize different kinds of ice are just as important skills as learning to count or read for many Nunavikois, the inhabitants of Nunavik. “We live differently here,” explains Alaku Kulula, educational advisor at the Kativik School Board. In our environment, it is necessary to know how to recognize the snow to go on the territory, it is a question of survival. »
This traditional knowledge is not necessarily taught in school, but the whole vision of teaching is colored by theinuguiniq. This also explains why some young people prefer to go fishing or hunting rather than sitting in class and their parents do not necessarily see any disadvantages in this.
“I have students who come to school very little, but who are real war machines on the territory, explains Victor Rochette-Coulombe, teacher at Quaqtaq. They know how to disassemble a Ski-Doo from A to Z: they have incredible skills in mechanics, survival and Inuit culture. »
Some will also use these skills to feed the villagers by filling the community freezer, thus closing the loop of the principle ofinuguiniqwhich involves the idea of giving back to the community.
A colonial institution
“It would be simplistic to think that young people only learn on the territory, warns Yasmine Charara, assistant director of second language educational services at the Kativik School Board. But whatever people say, school is a colonial institution [pour les Nunavikois], and it’s a nasty challenge to make it relevant to the community. »
Traditionally, knowledge was transmitted orally and young Inuit learned in the context of everyday life. “First, they observed, then they helped their parents and their brothers and sisters, then they could carry out their tasks”, summarizes Alaku, who recalls the speed at which the Nunavikois had to adapt.
In the 1950s, the federal government imposed English schooling on Inuit children. During the following decade, Quebec in turn built schools, in which Inuktitut was spoken during the first years and then French for the rest of the school career. In 1975, under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Nunavikois obtained the power to manage their own school system. Thus was born the Kativik School Board, which then took these two systems that were evolving in parallel to make a single one.
Yasmine summarizes the situation by repeating a sentence that has marked her in recent years: “The greatest proof of systemic racism in education in Nunavik is that the James Bay Agreement allowed us to have a commission school, but no one bothered to explain to us what a school board is. »
Trilingual schools
Today, the school board operates 18 schools in 14 villages accessible only by air. Only four villages are sufficiently populated to have a primary school and a secondary school. The others have only one school, which welcomes students from kindergarten to 5e secondary.
From kindergarten to second grade, learning is done only in Inuktitut. Typically Inuit teachers teach at these levels. In the third year, children make the transition to the second language, which can be either French or English, depending on the parents’ choice. According to Kativik, about half of the students pursue their studies in French as a second language, and the other half, in English, but the proportion varies from one community to another. From the 4e year, and for the rest of the school career, all learning takes place in this second language only. Inuktitut is still taught, but only as a subject, in 45-minute periods.
Although the Kativik School Board is not governed by the Education Act, it maintains direct ties with the Ministry of Education, which approves programs and sets — after negotiation — the operating budget.
But the Nunavikois do not always feel heard in their specificity or helped to meet their needs, particularly in terms of teaching materials.
Obsolete material
For the training of the youngest in Inuktitut, learning booklets are custom-made by a small team of pedagogical advisers from the school board. For the older ones, since the curriculum is more similar to what is done in the rest of the schools in Quebec, we generally use the material available in the south.
“The material is really not suitable, especially in terms of literature, explains Lise Deschênes, who teaches young people from 4e5e and 6e years in French as a second language. My students start learning French quite late, so they are really beginners when they arrive in my class. But when they look at what is being done as literature for their level, it is aimed at kindergarten children. They don’t care at all. Besides, it’s not adapted to their culture, so it doesn’t work at all! »
The teacher, who has been in Kangirsuk for seven years, has decided to take matters into her own hands. Last year, she started to write stories adapted to the level of her pupils, using simple sentences and the thematic vocabulary seen in class. The response from the students was such that she decided to make a book of it. One of her students, whose merits she never ceases to praise, did the illustrations. The book should be published shortly and will enrich the bank of material available to teachers at the Kativik School Board.
In mathematics, at the secondary level, the workbooks are adapted so that the concepts studied have more meaning for young Inuit. “These are materials developed over the years by educational advisers which are made available to teachers, but the edition of this material is limited, the quality is not always there and there is no no additional online tools”, sighs Yasmine.
In the other school service centers in Quebec, we take the program developed by the Ministry of Education and the educational material created by specialized publishing houses. But north of 55e parallel, none of that applies. “We are both a school board, a ministry and a publishing house,” she sums up.
In its 2018 report on education services in Nunavik, the Québec Ombudsman indicated that “the department adopts a restrictive vision of its role and that this position leads it not to exercise the responsibilities of approval, support and accompaniment incumbent upon it”.
The school “in the heart” of the village
For more than 40 years, the Kativik School Board has tried to navigate between the demands of Quebec and the unique needs of the local population. “Without community support, we can’t do it,” says Alec Kudluk, Center Director of Sautjuit School, who works hard to connect the school with the people of Kangirsuk.
All parents to whom The duty was able to speak underlined the importance of the school, which is “in the heart” of the village. Many harbor the hope that the success of young people will lead to an improvement in the socio-economic conditions of their community.
But if the majority of parents see the need for young people to develop their full educational potential, some are still a little reluctant, confide members of the school staff.
“It was difficult to gain the trust of the parents, because the residential schools tried to take away our language and our culture,” summarizes Winnie Grey, vice-principal of the Sautjuit school, located in Kangirsuk. The school has long been perceived as public enemy number 1, so it is still sometimes difficult to convince some people that the Sautjuit school is our school, the school of the community. »
The Kativik School Board in numbers
This report was produced in part with the financial support of the Kativik School Board.